LOUISA BOLUS BIOGRAPHY Chuck Staples, CSSA Historian

Bolus, [née Kensit] Dr Harriet Margaret Louisa (1877-1970)—taxonomic botanist and describer of many new succulent taxa, with special interest in Mesembryanthemum.

Born in Burgersdorp, Cape Province, South Africa on 31 July 1877, Louisa Bolus became an analytical botanist and taxonomist. She received an honors BA in the Arts degree from , in 1902 where Latin was one of her major subjects. During her undergraduate years she helped her great uncle, (1834-1911), in his herbarium in Cape Town, South Africa. Louisa was appointed curator of the herbarium in 1903.

In the early days as a botanist Louisa devoted her time to heaths and orchids, which were her uncle’s main interests. Upon the death of Harry Bolus in 1911 the herbarium and library was moved to the South African College (which became in 1918), where Louisa continued working for the rest of her life. She married Frank Bolus (1870-1945), her father’s cousin and Harry Bolus’ son, in 1912. The herbarium employed various artists, such as Miss Mary Maud Page (1867-1925) and Miss Beatrice Orchard Carter (1889-1939), to paint and/or illustrate specimens.

Due to a 1925 paper by Kew botanist Nicholas Edward Brown (1849-1934), which appeared in England’s The Gardener’s Chronicle, Louisa’s main interest shifted to African succulent . She became a specialist in the unwieldy Mesembryanthemum, which through the efforts of NE Brown, Martin Heinrich Gustav Schwantes (1881-1960) and Louisa Bolus, became divided into many genera under the Ice Plant family, Mesembryanthemaceae.

Bolus retired as curator of the herbarium at age 78 in 1955, but continued her taxonomic work there for the rest of her life. The university made her an Honorary Reader in Plant , and she was provided a reserved area on the top floor of the herbarium.

Bolus received many African specimens from collectors and other scientists. From these specimen plants she described a number of new genera (many named for people that sent her the specimens), including Esterhuysenia (Elsie Elizabeth Esterhuysen (1912–2006)), Jacobsenia (Hermann Johannes Heinrich Jacobsen (1898–1978)), Leipoldtia (Christian Frederick Louis Leipoldt (1880–1947)), Neohenricia (Marguerite Gertrude Anna Henrici (1892–1971)), Ottosonderia (Otto Wilhelm Sonder (1812–1881)), Peersia (Victor Stanley Peers (1874–1940)), Ruschianthus (Ernst Franz Theodor Rusch (1897–1964)), Stayneria (Frank J Stayner (1907–1981)), Vanzijlia (Dorothy van Zijl) and Wooleya (Charles Hugh Frederick Wooley (1894–1969)). Louisa described some 1700 new species of succulent plants, especially under Argyroderma, Bergeranthus, Cephalophyllum, , Conophytum, , Drosanthemum, Lampranthus, Mesembryanthemum, Ruschia, Stomatium and Trichodiadema. Two genera were named after Louisa [Kensit] Bolus, Bolusanthemum in 1928 (now a synonym of Hereroa) and Kensitia in 1940. Three succulent species were named in her honor: Conophytum bolusiae, Ruschia bolusiae and Stomatium bolusiae.

Bolus received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Stellenbosch in 1936, became an IOS member in 1955 and received the prestigious CSSA Fellow award in 1969 for curator of , University of Cape Town for 43 years, describer of about 2,000 species of succulents (primarily Mesembryanthema) and author of many publications. She authored a number of books and papers, primarily on mesembs. Her last publication, “Notes on Mesembryanthemum and Allied Genera”, appearing in Journal of South African was in 1969 with her usual “(to be continued)”.

Confined to her home during the last few months of her life, Louisa Bolus died at age 93 on 5 April 1970.

References: Eggli U, Newton LE. 2004. Etymological Dictionary of Succulent Plant Names. 28. Gunn M, Codd LE. 1981. Botanical Exploration of Southern Africa. 96–97. Levyns MR. 1970. H.M.L. Bolus (1877-1970). The Journal of South African Botany. 319–330. Mitich LW. 1998. H.M.L. Bolus, First Lady of South African Succulents. CSSA Newsletter 70: 75–76. Rowley GD. 1997. A History of Succulent Plants. 358. Staples CJ. 2013. A Historical Record of Authors of C&S Plant Names & Books for the Amateur Hobbyist. Vol 1, 66–83.